Free Messaging Apps Are Unsafe, Claims Hackers

The free text messaging app on your phone can be used to occupy your personal information. Hackers and cyber security professionals have claimed that internet companies can access a mobile user’s chat logs and phone data, which includes location, contacts, mail and much more, through some of the free texting apps.

As per TOI, a team of young hackers demonstrated on Sunday how text messages sent through a Chinese free texting app can be decrypted. They said foreign governments could also be using this method to access data for surveillance or spying.

Participants at The Hackers Conference in Delhi on Sunday said the government wasn’t utilizing the potential of hackers despite its websites increasingly coming under attack.

However, hackers are increasingly becoming part of the IT industry and contributing as security experts. “Hackers are paid around Rs 1 lakh per month by social networking sites, search engines and software companies, he said, adding that some of these hackers are just teenagers, says Kishlay who further said:

“Hacking is like an art which needs skill to master. It is also like science, extremely logical. Today private companies use ethical hackers to make themselves secure. We know of companies that pay hackers more than they spend on developing software,” said Kishlay Bharadwaj, 24, a freelance security analyst and organizing member of the conference.

White hat hackers are for the good, no matter if they work for any company or for safeguarding the nation from cyber threats.